When Will It All End?

My wife looked at me across the kitchen table last night and asked if I was tired. No, I said, I’m weary. Tired is what you feel after a day of yard work or a round of golf. It’s a good feeling, and a good night’s sleep will restore you by morning. Weary is what you feel after nearly a year of mask-wearing, social isolation, political turmoil, missed holiday gatherings with family, and trying to sing hymns in church with your glasses fogged up because of the aforementioned mask. Weary is what you feel when you want to go out, then check yourself to see if the trip is really necessary and decide to stay home. Weary is when you want to go to Saturday breakfast with your buddies, but instead stay home “out of an abundance of caution”.

I received my first dose of the vaccine today, and my wife got all excited, saying that now I could go back to gathering with friends and attending Bible studies. I had to remind her that two doses were necessary, four weeks apart. Then two more weeks for the vaccine to protect me. Then I’ll still have to wear the mask at least until September (or maybe forever) because the governor says so. (Why my wife has not received her first dose is a mystery to both of us. The medical provider we have has said they’d contact us when it was time to make an appointment. I got the notice; she didn’t yet. And you can’t call anyone. And if you call anyway, they don’t know.)

Weary is what I feel living in a culture that, in the name of “enlightenment”, is deep-diving into the sewer of depravity. The common opinion is that truth is whatever you want it to be, unless of course you happen to believe the there is just one objective truth, truth that lies outside ourselves.

During Sunday worship this week, we sang (muffled by masks and with foggy glasses) “The Church’s One Foundation” which includes the line:

Though with a scornful wonder the world sees us oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.
Yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, ‘How long?’
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

I have loved this hymn since childhood because, of course, the foundation of the church is Jesus the Christ. In a world that rejects objective truth, Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” In a society that glorifies personal autonomy (not responsibility), the Psalmist describes God’s reaction:

Psalms 2:1-4 (ESV) Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

I have to remember, that what is visible in the world today is not the final state of things. In my morning prayer, I go to the God of creation, lift up my heart, mind, and soul to Him, and worship Him for who He is and all He has done. Then, like the saints in heaven who cry out, “How long?” I tell God how my very being cries out for all things to be made right; for sin and suffering to cease. He comforts me with these words:

Revelation 22:12-13 (ESV) “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

And so I rise from prayer, strengthened and less weary. One day soon, the masks will come off, we will be able to see and touch each other again and life will return to “normal”. But the best is yet to come.

Revelation 22:20 (ESV) He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!